Paw cousins: Dogs' ancient journey from the East

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French researchers have discovered evidence that migrating Neolithic farmers from the Near East brought their dogs with them as they spread into Eurasia about 9000 years ago.

It had already been known that these people brought sheep, cows, wheat and barley, among other domesticated species, but findings of a new study published today in Biology Letters shows their dogs also came on the trip and intermingled with native European dogs upon arrival.

Neolithic farmers in the Near East introduced several species of plants and domestic animals that dispersed throughout Europe.

Unlike all other domestic animals, dogs were the only species present in Europe and the Near East before the Neolithic.

The researchers said they analysed 100 mitochondrial sequences from ancient European and Middle Eastern dogs covering the Upper Paleolithic to the Bronze Age.

The results showed the existence of a dog lineage associated with farmers in Southeastern Europe.

These results suggested that dogs were an integral component of the Neolithic farming package and a mitochondrial lineage associated with the Near East was introduced into Europe alongside pigs, cows, sheep and goats.

These "farmers dogs" got diluted into the native dog population when reaching the Western and Northern margins of Europe.